Toy car-truck rail aligner



N. SAUNDERS Aug. 4, 1953 TOY CAR-TRUCK RAIL ALIGNER Filed June 12, 1950 INVENTOR. Norman Saunders,

Patented Aug. 4, 1953 TOY CAR-TRUCK RAIL ALIGNER Norman Saunders, Washington, D. 0., assignor to Trackon 00., Inc., Washington, D. 0.

Application June 12, 1950, Serial No. 167,609

3 Claims. (Cl. 104-264) This invention relates to improvements in cartruck rail aligners and more particularly to toy' aligners to be used in connection with toy or scale model trains.

It is diflicult to mount scale model and toy cars on their track rails, particularly cars having swivel wheel trucks. When mounting a car of this type on a track, it frequently appears that the wheels are properly tracked when, in fact, the trucks are slightly twisted and the wheels are not tracked. Obviously, the smaller the scale rails.

According to my invention, I provide an inclined ramp with guides or rails so arranged that a car can be positioned on the inclined ramp and be substantially self-aligned, and the free ends of the ramp guide rails registered with the track rails, whereupon, the car will roll down by gravity onto the track.

The aligner may be provided with means at its free end to register with the track, so that once the aligner is positioned and a car is placed on the inclined ramp and released, it rolls onto the track rails in perfect alignment. As succeeding cars are rolled down the inclined ramp and onto a the track, they abut, and as most toy trains have interfittingcouplers, succeeding cars automatically couple when they abut;

Therefore, the-object of my invention is to provide a toy aligner to be associated with toy trains and track, whereby the cars can be fitted on a track without the difficulty of fitting the car-truck wheels individually on the rails.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure l is a plan view of the improved toy cartruck rail aligner;

Figure 2 is a side elevation;

Figure 3 is a detail transverse section on the line 3-3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a detail perspective view of the lower free end-s oi the rails on the inclined ramp fitted to a track; and

Figure 5 is a plan view of a modified form of the invention.

A toy car-truck rail aligner, in accordance with the present invention, comprises an inclined ramp l which may be supported at an inclination by a support 2 and may be provided with upstanding sides 3.

0n the ramp I is mounted a pair of parallel guide rails 4-4 which extend along the major portion of the ramp and are longer than the usual car to be guided thereby so that the rails Ill) can cooperate with both wheel-trucks of a car simultaneously and thereby align a complete car. The rails 4-4 terminate short of the upper end of the ramp and guide means for initially guiding the truck wheels to the rails 4-4 is mounted on the upper ramp end.

This guide means comprises a pair of short aligning rails 5-5 which are angularly disposed with their upper ends adjacent each other and their lower ends 6-6 juxtaposed with the upper ends of the guide rails 4-4. The lower ends of the guide rails 4-4 have extensions 1-! beyond the lower end of the ramp to be juxtapositioned with the track rails 8-8.

According to the preferred modification, as shown in-Figures 1-4, the guide rails 4-4 are arranged to support the car so that the car wheels track the guide rails in the same manner as the track rails 8-8. For this purpose, the lower ends 6-6 of the short aligning rails 5-5 extend below and are spaced inwardly of the upper ends of the guide rails 4-4, as shown in Figure 1. In addition, the lower extensions 1-! of the guide rails 4-4 are formed as inverted channels in cross-section, as shown in Figure 3, to fit over the top of track rails 8-8, so that when the toy aligner is in use, the rails on the inclined ramp form a continuation f the track rails.

To locate cars on the track rails, the toy aligner is placed over the track rails with the inverted channel extensions 1-! fitted over the top of the rails 8-8, as shown in Figure 4. Then one can place a car on the upper end of the inclined ramp, with the truck wheels straddling the short aligning rails 5-5; As these short rails incline toward and fit between the open ends of the rails 4-4, the car wheels are guided to fit and roll on the rails 4-4, down the inclined ramp to the track rails 8-8.

If the car is released on the ramp, it will gravitates down the guide rails 4-4 and when the car contacts with the track rails, it will roll some distance, and when subsequent cars roll down and onto the track rails, they will abut against the preceding car and become automatically coupled. Thus, by starting the cars down the inclined ramp, they assume their proper position on the track without the usual inconvenience of bending over and fitting the cars on the track.

In better and more expensive scale model trains and track, the track is narrower and the rails and wheels are considerably smaller than those employed with the commercial toy trains, and because of these small dimensions and close tolerances, the scale model cars are a great deal 3 more diflicult to mount on the track. An aligner for use with the scale model equipment is preferably slightly modified in construction although employing the same basic organization.

A preferred modification for use with scale model equipment is shown in Figure 5. In this instance, the short oppositely inclined aligning rails San-5a, preferably extend to an apex at their upper ends and their lower ends 6a-6a abut the upper ends of the guide rails tan-4a on the inclined ramp I, while the lower extensions la-1a are formed by extending the ends of said rails 4a-4a beyond the lower end of the ramp. The guide rails ta-ta are spaced closer together than the track rails 8-8 so that the extensions la-4d fit in between and are spaced from the track rails 8-8, as shown in Figure 5.

In this form of the invention, the flanges I of the Wheels of the car ride on the ramp with their inner sides engaging the outside of the guide rails 4a-ia so that when the wheels reach the bottom of the inclined ramp, the treads of the wheels will ride on top of the track rails in the usual manner.

The reason for the modified arrangement of the rails is due to the fact that in the commercial toy trains, the wheels and tracks have greater tolerances and can be readily located on the inclined rail sections 4-4. However, with the more accurately scaled model trains, the wheels and rail sections are smaller and have close tolerances, which requires more careful fitting of the wheels to properly track the rails.

Obviously, with the car in hand, the front truck wheels can be quickly fitted to straddle the aligning rails fizz-50: and guided thereby into straddling relation and alignment with the guide rails Ara-4a. The car is then advanced to mount the rear truck in straddling relation with the aligning rails fiat-a whereupon the car may be released to roll down the ramp. The lower extensions 'lala are spaced inwardly of the track rails 8-8 to respectively accommodate the wheel flanges It therebetween so that the wheel treads will roll directly onto the top of the track rails 8-8. It will be noted that even though the wheels may drop a short distance from the end of the ramp I to the track rails B8, any deviation of the wheels out of alignment is prevented by engagement between the inner sides of the wheels and the outer sides of the extensions la-4a so that the Wheels remain in proper alignment with the track rails. With very small scale models, the height of the rails 4a-4a is almost equal to the diameter of the car wheels so that the wheel axles are supported by and roll or slide on the extensions 1a-'Ia when the wheels leave the ramp l What I claim is:

1. A toy car truck ail aligner comprising an inclined ramp adapted to be mounted over the rails of a track, a pair of parallel wheel engaging rails longitudinally on said ramp and extending beyond the lower end of said ramp to terminate in juxtaposition to the track rails, said parallel rails being spaced a distance not greater than the track rails and being of a length to simultaneously engage all wheels of a car, and wheel flange engaging guide means on the upper end portion of i said ramp and tapered optwardly from its upper end to juxtaposition with the upper ends of said parallel rails.

2. A toy car truck rail aligner comprising an inclined ramp adapted to be mounted over the rails of a track, a pair of parallel wheel supporting rails longitudinally on said ramp and extending beyond the lower end of said ramp, said parallel rails being spaced a distance equal to the track rails and being of a length to simultaneously support all wheels of a car, the lower ends of said rails comprising inverted channels for fitting over the track rails to form continuous tracks from said ramp to the track, and guide means on the upper end portion of said ramp and tapering from its upper end to juxtaposition within the upper ends of said parallel rails to accommodate the wheel flanges therebetween and guide the wheels of a car truck onto said rails.

3. A toy car truck rail aligner comprising an inclined ramp adapted to be mounted over the rails of a track, a pair of parallel wheel engaging rails longitudinally on said ramp and extending beyond the lower end of said ramp to terminate in juxtaposition to and within the track rails, said parallel rails being spaced a distance less than the track rails to accommodate the wheel flanges of a truck therebetween, said parallel rails being of a length to simultaneously engage all wheels of a car and guide means tapered utwardly from its upper end to alignment with the upper ends of said parallel rails to guide the wheels of a car truck to said rails.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Melior Nov. 21, 1950 Number 

